Improvement in shovels



WHARTON, Jr.

Shovels.

Pafented Mar. 4, 1879.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM WHARTON, JR, or PHILADELPHIA, PEnnsY vA-nIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN SHOVELS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 213,019, dated March 4,1879; application filed December 2, 1878.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, WILLIAM WHARTON, Jr., ofPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvementin Shovels, of which the following is a specification:

The object of my invention is to so graduate the blade of a shovel inthickness that it will resist abrasive action much longer than theblades of ordinary shovels.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a view of my improvedshovel-blade blank. Fig. 2 is a front view of the finished blade. Fig. 3is a section of the blade-blank on the line 1 2; and Fig. 4 is a sectionon the line 3 4, showing a modification.

The blades of shovels, especially when used on gravelly soil, are soabraded by the latter that they soon become thin, and finally useless,the part of the.blade which is the first to yield to this friction beingat and near the dotted line shown in Fig. 2.

In order that the blade may be more enduring at the part where it issubjected to the greatest wear, I make it thicker at that part.

The blade-blank, Fig. l, for instance, is so rolled as to be thickest atand near the dotted line ax, the extra thickness being uniform for somedistance above and below this line, and then gradually merginginto theordinary thickness of a shovel-blade, as shown in Fig. 3.

When the blank has been converted into a shovel, in the usual manner, itwill be menforced throughout its entire width-that is, from one edge, a,to the opposite edge, aas

shown in the front view, Fig. 2, in which, however, the graduatedthickness is exaggerated in order to clearly illustrate my invention. Itwill be seen that by this increased thickness the desired re-enforcementis obtained, and that by the gradual merging of the thick into thethinner portion of the blade both the front and back of the same willpresent uniform smooth surfaces, uninterrupted by abrupt projections orribs, and consequently that the blade will enter the soil as freely asan ordinary blade. I

It is not essential to my invention, however, that the extra thicknessof metal should extend entirely across the blade, for the latter may beof the usual thickness at and near the opposite edges, to a, so that asection on the line 3 4 will have the appearance shown in Fig. 4, whichis also exaggerated, for the above reason.

I claim as my invention A shovel-blade re-enforced in thickness at andnear the point shown and described, the thick portion gradually merginginto the thinner portion, so that the front and back of the blade shallpresent uniform surfaces free from abrupt ridges and projections, asspecified.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name. to this specification in thepresence of two subscribing witnesses. I

WILLIAM WHARTON, JR. Witnesses:

HENRY HowsoN, J r., HARRY SMITH.

